The yuan's weakness came after the global dollar index on Monday touched its weakest level since late February. It was little changed on Tuesday at 90.253.
Export growth unexpectedly picked up in April, data showed on Friday, as the world's second-largest economy extended its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Canadian dollar was trading 0.1% higher at 1.2272 to the greenback, or 81.49 US cents, having traded in a range of 1.2266 to 1.2317. On Friday, it touched its strongest intraday level since February 2018 at 1.2262.
"The rapidly improving economic outlook in the UK amid general dollar weakness may just be the catalyst to move sterling back above 1.40 in the coming weeks," said Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Kim Mundy.
Still, observers remain upbeat about the outlook as vaccinations pick up and lockdowns are eased, while vast sums of government and central bank cash swirls around the economy.
"China's solid macroeconomic fundamentals should continue to provide support for the currency," Matthew Ryan, senior market analyst at Ebury, said in a note.
Oil, one of Canada's major exports, settled 1.5% higher at $63.86 a barrel after US distillate inventories posted a large drawdown and refiners ramped up activity to the highest in over a year.
News reports about his tax-hike plan dented markets' risk appetite only briefly on Friday but analysts think there could be a bigger reaction if the plan becomes more concrete.
Some market participants say developments around Chinese state-owned bad loan giant China Huarong Asset Management Co have also lent a cautious air to yuan trading.
Still, Asian traders were in an upbeat mood in early business, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Manila all up, though there were slight losses in Sydney, Jakarta and Bangkok.